Biggest mechanical job the car needed is now completed, that being the timing belt replacement. It's an awkward job, not impossible to do at home, and also not exactly ideal either. I found it impossible to undo the crankshaft bolt at home with the tools I did have and had to take the car to Mike's unit to make use of the lift and the really big bars and when the belt needs doing again, assuming I still have the car then, I'll be giving the job to someone else rather than trying to DIY it. I don't know when the old belt was done which is the reason for doing this, it gives a good datum point for future servicing. The belt that came off was worn, but not excessively so, and didn't look monstrously old. I believe it is a replacement belt, I find it unlikely the car's estimated 110k would have been possible on the original belt and if it were the original, I'd certainly expect to see more age related wear and damage than there is here.
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Biggest mechanical job the car needed is now completed, that being the timing belt replacement. It's an awkward job, not impossible to do at home, and also not exactly ideal either. I found it impossible to undo the crankshaft bolt at home with the tools I did have and had to take the car to Mike's unit to make use of the lift and the really big bars and when the belt needs doing again, assuming I still have the car then, I'll be giving the job to someone else rather than trying to DIY it. I don't know when the old belt was done which is the reason for doing this, it gives a good datum point for future servicing. The belt that came off was worn, but not excessively so, and didn't look monstrously old. I believe it is a replacement belt, I find it unlikely the car's estimated 110k would have been possible on the original belt and if it were the original, I'd certainly expect to see more age related wear and damage than there is here.
201905-34.thumb.jpg.178172c9619e748331039f8a6ca45ba5.jpg
201905-35.thumb.jpg.2bc01c7d5c13af289f9fc9ed07f638af.jpg
I could have probably chanced a few more thousand miles on that belt, realistically. While we were doing the belt we also did the water pump and I had planned to do the tensioner but for one reason and another, didn't have one. The tensioner on the car was in really good shape anyway, as was the idler pulley, so I doubt it'll be an issue. Just as well the water pump was replaced at any rate, whoever had been in here before had used white bathroom sealant (or something very much like it) which had got into the water pump itself and there's probably little bits of it in the engine too. Not a great deal I can do about that at this point, and since it's not been a problem so far I have to assume it will continue to not be a problem.
I would have liked to show you in more depth how the job was done. However, there were some slight difference between my engine and the manual (because of course there was, it's a Citroen) and much of the job required more arms than most people come with as standard combined with the need for lemur fingers. All in all, it was an irritating job because of access, particularly getting the timing belt to sit in place which needed two of us to stop it popping off while you were trying to seat the top or bottom sections of it. Super annoying. Still, could be worse, we could have had to be doing a clutch on a Xantia with a turbo. For putting the locking rod/dowel/drill bit into the hole to lock the flywheel we had to remove the starter motor and use a smaller dowel than suggested in the book, it was little things like that which were a bit annoying.
On hunting for oil leaks, we couldn't locate the source of the oil on the back of the engine, it doesn't appear to be coming from anywhere at all so Mike and I have come to the conclusion it's historic and probably from the leaking return line to the brake doseur since that's the area it's underneath. The sump plug is definitely weeping a bit of oil and it looks like the sump has been bashed a long time ago. A new copper washer (I assume it has one, I haven't checked) should resolve the issue at any rate and since an oil change is the next service item I'll do it when I do that. Other leaks that we think we've identified are of the LHM variety at the back. Like at the front with the brake doseur line, the leak at the back only happens when the car is parked up overnight and sure enough, on checking over the rear boots, there's those same age-related perish lines on the rubber boots. When I can afford to, I'll order a replacement pair of boots and then hope it's not too horrendous a job to replace them. It's worth noting the passenger side boot has had some sealant applied to the perished areas which is now starting to fail. Since it's only a return leak and only happens when the car is parked, I'm filing this under Because Citroen rather than something to be really worried about.
After all that work the car felt no different really, a bit smoother perhaps, but that could just as well be placebo effect. Bleeding the coolant system was much easier when Mike identified where the bleed screws actually are, something I couldn't find last time for some reason. This really marks the starting point of my service history with the car, now it's just a case of doing any new jobs while they're small and steadily improving the car as I go.
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Biggest mechanical job the car needed is now completed, that being the timing belt replacement. It's an awkward job, not impossible to do at home, and also not exactly ideal either. I found it impossible to undo the crankshaft bolt at home with the tools I did have and had to take the car to Mike's unit to make use of the lift and the really big bars and when the belt needs doing again, assuming I still have the car then, I'll be giving the job to someone else rather than trying to DIY it. I don't know when the old belt was done which is the reason for doing this, it gives a good datum point for future servicing. The belt that came off was worn, but not excessively so, and didn't look monstrously old. I believe it is a replacement belt, I find it unlikely the car's estimated 110k would have been possible on the original belt and if it were the original, I'd certainly expect to see more age related wear and damage than there is here.
201905-34.thumb.jpg.178172c9619e748331039f8a6ca45ba5.jpg
201905-35.thumb.jpg.2bc01c7d5c13af289f9fc9ed07f638af.jpg
I could have probably chanced a few more thousand miles on that belt, realistically. While we were doing the belt we also did the water pump and I had planned to do the tensioner but for one reason and another, didn't have one. The tensioner on the car was in really good shape anyway, as was the idler pulley, so I doubt it'll be an issue. Just as well the water pump was replaced at any rate, whoever had been in here before had used white bathroom sealant (or something very much like it) which had got into the water pump itself and there's probably little bits of it in the engine too. Not a great deal I can do about that at this point, and since it's not been a problem so far I have to assume it will continue to not be a problem.
I would have liked to show you in more depth how the job was done. However, there were some slight difference between my engine and the manual (because of course there was, it's a Citroen) and much of the job required more arms than most people come with as standard combined with the need for lemur fingers. All in all, it was an irritating job because of access, particularly getting the timing belt to sit in place which needed two of us to stop it popping off while you were trying to seat the top or bottom sections of it. Super annoying. Still, could be worse, we could have had to be doing a clutch on a Xantia with a turbo. For putting the locking rod/dowel/drill bit into the hole to lock the flywheel we had to remove the starter motor and use a smaller dowel than suggested in the book, it was little things like that which were a bit annoying.
On hunting for oil leaks, we couldn't locate the source of the oil on the back of the engine, it doesn't appear to be coming from anywhere at all so Mike and I have come to the conclusion it's historic and probably from the leaking return line to the brake doseur since that's the area it's underneath. The sump plug is definitely weeping a bit of oil and it looks like the sump has been bashed a long time ago. A new copper washer (I assume it has one, I haven't checked) should resolve the issue at any rate and since an oil change is the next service item I'll do it when I do that. Other leaks that we think we've identified are of the LHM variety at the back. Like at the front with the brake doseur line, the leak at the back only happens when the car is parked up overnight and sure enough, on checking over the rear boots, there's those same age-related perish lines on the rubber boots. When I can afford to, I'll order a replacement pair of boots and then hope it's not too horrendous a job to replace them. It's worth noting the passenger side boot has had some sealant applied to the perished areas which is now starting to fail. Since it's only a return leak and only happens when the car is parked, I'm filing this under Because Citroen rather than something to be really worried about.
After all that work the car felt no different really, a bit smoother perhaps, but that could just as well be placebo effect. Bleeding the coolant system was much easier when Mike identified where the bleed screws actually are, something I couldn't find last time for some reason. This really marks the starting point of my service history with the car, now it's just a case of doing any new jobs while they're small and steadily improving the car as I go.